Spirit Animals – new series from Scholastic including new book from Nix & Williams

During BEA a couple of weeks ago, Scholastic announced a new multi-platform, multi-author fantasy adventure series for readers ages 8–12 that will debut worldwide this September. There will be seven books. The first is written by Brandon Mull, who created the story arc of the series; the complete list of authors is here, and it’s pretty amazing.

I’m excited because Garth and I are writing book three. It’ll come out about the same time as Troubletwisters 4.

From School Library Journal:

Spirit Animals is set in the fantasy world of Erdas, where children who come of age go through a ritual to determine if they have a “spirit animal,” a rare bond between human and beast that bestows great powers to both. The series focuses on four kids from different cultures who undergo an annual ritual and discover that they have been chosen for a greater destiny. Each book in the series will unlock expanded gameplay on the immersive Spirit Animals online game site, where kids can customize unique heroes, choose spirit animals, and go on quests to help save Erdas.

This follows in the wake of two other successful ventures by Scholastic, the 39 Clues and Infinity Ring series, which you can read more about here. I’ve done this kind of thing before (well, nearly: my titles in the multi-author New Jedi Order series were also collaborations) but this is on a whole different scale. It’s brilliant to part of such an ambitious venture and I can’t to experience it as it rolls out.